A Level Psychology

Ever wondered why you are the way you are, or other people behave the way they do? A Level Psychology will help you to understand yourself and other people much better. It is a subject that tries to get to the bottom of what you are like and why you behave in certain ways. It is more precisely the “scientific study of the human mind and human behaviour”.

Course Overview

AS Level (Year 1):

Social and cognitive psychology
Biological psychology and learning theories

A Level (Year 2):

Paper 1 – Foundations in Psychology. Topics include Social psychology, Cognitive psychology, Biological psychology, Learning theories and Issues and debates.
Paper 2 – Applications of Psychology. Topics include Clinical psychology, Child Psychology
Paper 3 – Psychological skills. Topics covered are: Methods, Synoptic review of studies and Issues and debates. This is a synoptic section in which students will be asked to draw on all topics to develop a general knowledge of key issues and debates.

Entry Requirements

All students studying A Levels must have at least five GCSEs at grade A* – C (grade 9 – 5) in academic subjects, including English Language at grade C (grade 5). Two of these must be B grades (grade 6).

Specifically for Psychology, you must have GCSE Double Science/Psychology at C (grade 5) or above OR two GCSEs in Science, including Biology, at grade C (grade 5) or above, AND GCSE Maths at grade C (grade 5) or above.

Assessment Information

You take five exams – two one-and-a-half-hour exams for AS and three two-hour exams for A Level.

Career Opportunities

Students who have studied Psychology A Level often go on to study it at university or choose a related degree such as criminology, sociology or teaching.

Psychology is very useful for any career that involves working with people e.g. nursing, teaching, health, business. There are few areas of life where knowledge of psychology is not valuable.